Saturday, May 21, 2011

Ulmus: DONE

There is nothing more satisfying than finishing a project that has been languishing on the needles for, oh, the better part of two years. I remember seeing my pal Juliefrick's test knit version at MDS&W right after the pattern had been released in 09 and NEEDING to cast on immediately. Luckily I was in line at The Fold's booth at the time and was able to instagratibuy the yarn for it. That day I couldn't race home fast enough to fire it up. And here we are, two years and many breaks later, and it's finally finished. Whew!The Specs:Pattern Ulmus by Kirsten Kapur of Through the Loops.Yarn: STR Mediumweight in 'Puck's Mischief'(entire skein) and STR Silkie in 'Jade' (.75 of skein).Size: MediumNeedles: size 6Modifications: Was forced to omit last two rows due to lack of yarn!If you look through the Ravelry project gallery you will note that many knitters did what I did: put it down for a spell, pick it up again and have completely lost your place. Hilarious! Luckily I knew I'd be seeing the designer herself at last year's Maryland Sheep and Wool for a chat, so I brought it with me and she was kind enough to look at it and within several nanoseconds identify where I was. Love her!Another thing you notice when perusing the variations projects is that there seems to be pretty strong variation in terms of how people like to block this out. Some have opted for the ultra-pointy look whereas others, me included, wanted a flatter edge. My choice was in part dictated by the fact that I was running out of yarn and quickly saw that I needed to make haste and wrap things up. Personally I love running out at the end and using up an entire skein as it gives me a great sense of satisfaction and lets me live out the twisted fantasy that I am one of those thrifty "make do, live simple" kind of people (think Mormon-mom bloggers) rather than the wasteful, gluttonous knitter that I truly know myself to beThose of you who know my strict personal guidelines regarding mixing lace and variegated yarn are perhaps surprised to see that I have done the lace portion as I did--yes? Well believe me I only did so after great deliberation and trolling of the project gallery into the wee hours of the morning. I noticed that many knitters had in fact used a variegated yarn for the lace pattern and it, in fact, looked quite nice. So I gave it a whirl and am so glad that I did.At this year's MDS&W I once again saw my pal Juliefrick as was reminded of that morning two years ago when I became crazed for that pattern. This year it seems to be all about stripes: both Dream Stripes and Different Lines (the shawl pattern created by Veera Välimäki to satiate all of you Stripe-Study maniacs) will be accompanying me on my trip tomorrow. See you on the flipside!